


Short Shifts

by Why_so_drama



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Ficlet Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:56:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23311126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Why_so_drama/pseuds/Why_so_drama
Summary: Just a place to throw all our ficlets.1. Quidditch AU - Sid/Geno2. Married at First Sight - Sid/Geno3. Dollhouse AU - Sid/Geno4. Avengers AU - Tyler/Jamie5. Wrong Universe - Tyler/Jamie6. Untitled Goose Fic - Gen, Sid/Geno
Relationships: Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin, Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin
Comments: 17
Kudos: 34





	1. [Sid/Geno] Quidditch AU

**Author's Note:**

> Between the two of us, we write a lot of random fic bits and not-fic. All pairings are marked in chapter titles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a [trope mash-up](https://why-so-drama.tumblr.com/post/174342775037/fanfiction-trope-mash-up) (73 and 94, any pairing), set in our [Quidditch AU](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1228502).

Flower is up to his usual tricks, resulting in Sid getting hit with a hair growth potion right before their game against the Brassbriar Roses, so he shows up to the pitch with waist length dark curly hair and Geno is just floored. He can’t stop staring, even though the weather is getting really nasty around them.

The team decides to try to wait out the storm, but it seems to be magical in nature, and is just getting worse. Sid is cranky because of the hair, and cranky because Geno won’t stop looking at him and also cranky because he hates Brassbriar. He’d once said that he doesn’t like a single person on the team.

He and Geno have just recently gotten together for real and Sid doesn’t want Geno to see him looking like a drowned rat because of his newly long hair. With the storm raging around them, his hair is just getting more and more messy. He keeps having to push it out of his face, inevitably messing it up some more. He hates it. He’s never even wanted hair this long, so he’s more than eager to get this game over, no matter what the weather decides to do.

Finally, it’s determined that the weather is too bad to play, and the game is postponed for a day. Dragonwell and Brassbriar don’t mix, so Sid has no reason to talk to Giroux and plan something for both teams that evening. Brassbriar doesn’t even stay on site when they come to play, so Sid rushes off to his lab so that he can try to come up with a antidote since not even trying to hack the hair off had worked earlier, right before the game.

He tries to lose Geno in the crowd, but it’s impossible because Geno knows where his lab is and comes in soon after. Sid looks up at him from beneath his matted fringe and huffs a little.

“Sid, why you leave so fast?” Geno asks him as he approaches the workbench.

“I need to get rid of this hair, so you can either let me work, or you can go,” Sid tells him sulkily.

Geno doesn’t listen to him at all, and moves to stand in front of him. Gently, he takes some of Sid’s hair and places it over his shoulder. “Looks nice.”

“No, it looks stupid,” Sid replies stubbornly. “It’s all curly and matted and-“

“You think is matted? I brush for you.” Then, Geno summons a hairbrush and ushers Sid over to the sitting area where he writes his notes and tests out theories. Geno sits behind him and first starts to untangle his hair with his fingers, murmuring sweet words about what he had been thinking when he’d first seen Sid with his long hair. “I see you and cannot look away, you know? Look so pretty with long hair like this, like, is very nice. Then you pout and I’m think you look even more cute.”

“I’m not cute.”

“Yes, you cute, but you always cute,” Geno disagrees before he reaches for the hairbrush to start brushing Sid’s hair properly. They talk a bit longer, with Geno heaping praise on Sid and telling him how beautiful he looks with his new hair style while the thunder sounds outside the windows.They both ignore the rattling, more intent on each other now that they’re inside, away from the storm.

Finally, when Geno is done brushing all of Sid’s hair (which takes a while), Sid turns to him and says, “You know I’m still getting rid of it, right?”

“I know this,” Geno replies, nodding. “But I still like.”

He cups his hand around Sid’s face and leans in to kiss him. Sid chases his lips afterward and they make out for a while, at least until Flower bursts in. “I have the anti-“ he starts, “were you two about to fuck.”

“No,” Sid says stubbornly while at the same time, Geno says, “yes.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t give this to you then, since you seem to like your new look so much, eh?”

“Give it,” Sid demands. “Give it to me now.”

“I don’t-“

But then Geno summons the antidote and hands it over to Sid before chasing Flower out of the work room. After that, he wards the doors and settles himself on top of Sid on the couch. “You take later?” He suggests as he brushes Sid’s hair away from his face again.

“Later,” Sid agrees, and pulls Geno back down for a kiss. It really does end up being much later when he applies the antidote to his hair.


	2. [Sid/Geno] Married At First Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of us is embarrassingly into reality TV, and has been wanting to see a _Married at First Sight AU_ forever. And so, a not-fic.__

Picture this:

Sid is recently retired. He has come out of the closet and is so tired of waiting for love to find him. He always said ‘after hockey’ but now that hockey is done, he still can’t find that absolute unit of a man. He’s been trying, too. He’s tried blind dates, he’s tried dating websites, he’s tried just meeting guys when he’s gone out with friends and family but none of it is working. Sure, he’s met some nice guys and they’ve had fun, but none of them seem to want to try for anything deeper than a couple weeks of fooling around with a former hockey star.

And like, Sid wants a family. He wants kids. He wants to buy a dryer and have it in the basement for shooting practice. He wants it all so badly that he’s decided to throw caution to the wind and expose his personal life to the world by agreeing to be on the show. He’s afraid that he’ll regret it and that it won’t work out, but just the chance that it might makes him want to at least try.

So he signs up for their “celebrity” version and hopes that it’s not all a total mistake.

Enter Geno:

He’s a goofy former model turned fashion designer who has also had trouble finding himself a man or woman that sticks. He has a demanding schedule and is away a lot for work. He needs someone that understands how busy he is; he may not even get to spend too much time with his partner if they travel with him. He needs someone that can entertain themselves while he’s busy, or that has a career of their own that they want to focus on.

He’s getting older now, and he’s been ready to settle down, get a dog and a cat, and think about having some kids. Nothing has worked out for him so far, and he’s more than willing to join the show to take a chance on love and hope that it works out for him.

The two of them are matched together (obviously) and they get 8 weeks to decide if they stay married but they end up being like, the biggest success story. They have little arguments, sure, but no real drama, just a lot of fluffy cuteness and a ton of hot sex. As a hockey fan, Geno always had a crush on Sid but he didn’t know Sid at all. Now he gets to and he quickly falls in love with him, even though Sid is stubborn and demanding, and sometimes ridiculous in the way he insists on doing things.

It works for them. Sid goes with Geno on his various trips, taking the time to finally explore the places that he’s been to for hockey but never really gotten the chance to see. Geno finds himself wanting to spend time with Sid, so he rearranges his schedule so that they can explore together and he can still get his work done. Sid brings him up to Nova Scotia and makes him help out with his hockey school, which makes both of them start thinking about kids even more seriously.

The season that they’re on gets the best ratings that the show has ever had, and it’s not just because they have celebrities taking part. The love story between Sid and Geno unfolds adorably, and North America can’t miss a single minute. There’s no debate about whether or not they’ll stay married; leading up to decision day, they both admit to each other that they can’t imagine their futures without the other.

America doesn’t tune in for arguing and drama, this time, they tune in to see this beautiful love story unfolding between two guys that just can’t seem to get enough of each other.


	3. [Sid/Geno] Dollhouse AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Dollhouse_ as in the Joss Whedon show. Born from the weird thought of what if, while looking for solutions during the concussion saga, Sid was pitched the idea that the blank 'Doll' state would help him heal faster. Geno deals with what comes after.

Sid springs it on Zhenya one afternoon, when they’re settled on the couch with the pre-game muted on TV.

“I’m going to try something, for the—my head,” he blurts out. “My agent knows, but I don’t want it to be all over the news or anything. He thinks I should tell someone else.”

Zhenya blinks. “So you tell me? Instead of family?”

Sid almost squirms. “It’s kind of experimental. They’re not going to like it, but I have to do something.”

That sets off alarm bells. “What kind of experiment?”

Sid tells him.

\---

Zhenya worries, but he knows that Sid is desperate and won’t be swayed. The night before the first treatment, Sid makes them dinner and talks about it with so much hope that Zhenya can’t blame him.

“I want to play again,” Sid says at one point, with simple honesty. “I want to be out there with you when you get back.”

When it’s time to go, Zhenya hugs him tightly and tries not to feel like he’s saying goodbye.

\---

Brisson brings him back to Zhenya’s house later the next day. Sid looks a little sleepy, bundled in a heavy coat that isn’t his, but he smiles when Brisson tells him that he’ll be staying with Geno for a while.

After the agent leaves, they’re left staring at each other awkwardly. Dixi saves the day by slinking down the stairs and going straight over to wind herself around Sid’s legs.

“Oh, hello!” Sid kneels slowly, a little uncertain, but lets out a small, delighted laugh when Dixi climbs him and settles in his arms. “Hi, kitty. What’s your name?”

“Dixi,” Zhenya says, his voice a little hoarse. “Her name Dixi.”

\---

Sid doesn’t remember a lot of things, but it doesn’t seem to bother him. He trusts Brisson implicitly, and is under the impression that he’ll be staying with Zhenya until his next treatment. 

“So I’ll get better.” Sid’s eyes get a little dreamy. “I can’t wait to get better.”

Zhenya watches him move around the house with more ease than he has for months. 

“How’s your head? Hurt?”

“No.”

\---

This Sid is even more blunt than his usual self. When he wants something, he says so and waits expectantly. When he doesn’t like something, he abandons and ignores it. He doesn’t crave watching TV or meticulously plan how he’ll spend his screen time. In fact, he seems to have very little interest in anything that could aggravate the concussion symptoms. 

Zhenya suspects that this is not a coincidence. 

Instead, Sid wanders around the house barefoot in a t-shirt and sweatpants, puttering around the kitchen and pestering Zhenya about everything and anything. The book Zhenya is reading, the Russian shows he watches sometimes, why Zhenya had chosen those specific flowers for his garden, the list goes on. 

One day, Zhenya gets a little impatient and tells him to shut up for a few minutes. He immediately feels awful when Sid’s face falls and he scrambles to his feet from where he had been sitting on the floor, playing with Dixi.

“Sorry,” Sid mumbles. “Pat said I shouldn't bother you so much.”

“You not-- you never _bother_, Sid,” Zhenya tells him, wishing he could stand too. “Just, want little bit quiet sometimes.”

Sid fidgets a little, his bare toes curling against the carpet. “I can be quiet.”

“I know.” Zhenya pats the sofa cushion next to him. “I’m sorry too. Stay with me, okay?”


	4. [Jamie/Tyler] Avengers AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just self indulgent nonsense: Tyler as Tony Stark, with Rads as Rhodey and Bish as Pepper.

Tyler is feeling pretty good about himself. The tower had powered up beautifully, the reactor working without a hitch, and the new and improved removal rig managed to get the armor off without any uncomfortable pinching. He struts through it and into the penthouse, where Bish and Rads are lounging around with champagne. 

“Ayyy,” Rads cheers, raising his glass as Tyler flops down between them. “Nice work, man.”

“Thanks. Looks good, right?”

Cash pours Tyler his own glass, mechanical arm whirring, and Tyler pats the robot before tipping his head back with a happy sigh. Bish’s voice is a soothing background noise as he reads the energy levels from a tablet. Rads is humming softly and everything is right with the world, at least for the moment. 

“Intruder alert,” Marshall announces abruptly. 

“The fuck?” Tyler mutters as a holoscreen pops up of the elevator camera feed. There's only one person, dressed in a badly fitting suit and pimples he can see from here. “How did you get in here?”

“Sorry,” McDavid replies, looking earnestly into the camera. “It's an emergency.”

Which is how Tyler ends up watching the multi-screen briefing sent over by the League, eyes darting between the black and white footage of Captain Canada, and full colour footage of some sort of altercation in Dallas. The latter involves a brick house of a guy who looks like he got lost on the way to a renaissance fair. He's dressed in green and silver armor, with dark hair that brushes his shoulders and big doe eyes that make him look like he wouldn't hurt a fly. It makes it all the more impressive when he appears to command lightning with a large, old fashioned looking hammer. 

“Who's this?” Tyler asks, ignoring Bish’s quiet _‘oh geez’_ from behind him. 

“That's uh, Jameson. Says he's from another realm.”

“Definitely out of this world,” Tyler murmurs. 

“You talking about his skills or his arms?” Rads asks slyly.

"Both. Definitely both."


	5. [Jamie/Tyler] Wrong Universe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone said Tyler as a WAG and this happened.

It’s always a stupid idea to check his phone right before going to bed, but Tyler can’t help himself. It’s been a long summer, and he’s barely heard from Jamie outside of the team group chat and social media. The few texts he did get were perfectly normal things; photos of his baby niece, Jordie doing something dumb, their family dogs. Just few and far between, and nothing acknowledging the day after locker room clean out. 

Tyler has spent a lot of the off season dreaming about the way Jamie had looked at him before kissing him back. He’s woken up with the phantom feeling of large hands still cupping his face and gripping his hips. Memories of soft kisses to the back of his neck, fingers tracing over tattoos. It isn’t like him to dwell on what may or may not be a one-time hook up, but this hadn’t been with just anyone. 

Even now that he’s back in Dallas for the new season, there hasn’t been anything beyond the usual welcome back text that Jamie sent to everyone. 

Tyler has barely reached for his phone when Gerry clambers onto the bed and flops unceremoniously on top of both him. “Maybe just let it lie, huh,” he says softly, scratching behind Gerry’s ear. 

The soft clinking of tags announce Cash’s arrival, followed quickly by Marshall. They hop onto the bed as well, acknowledging him with a lick and a gentle head-butt respectively, before settling in their preferred spots. The bed is enormous, easily able to fit him, the dogs and another person besides. 

Tyler shifts Gerry off and goes to close the bedroom door. He’s plugging in his phone to charge when the screen lights up with a new message. 

Tyler lets out a shaky breath and stares at it for a while. His thumb hovers over the screen, ready to unlock it, but then he presses the power button instead and the screen blacks out, leaving only his reflection staring back at him. He'll deal with it in the morning, when he’s less likely to do something impulsive. 

The dogs seem to sense it when he crawls into bed. They crowd in closer, whining softly, and he cuddles in, comforted by their warm, familiar shapes curled up around and on top of him. 

——

He wakes up feeling a little cold. It’s unusual, because September in Dallas is warm enough that he barely bothers with covers. The dogs have all disappeared, which might explain it, but the door is open. His boys are smart, but even they can’t open that particular kind of door handle. 

Tyler rolls over, right into a warm spot that’s too big to have been from a dog lying there. A faint, almost familiar scent tickles his nose. He doesn’t remember bringing anyone home last night. 

Confused, Tyler sits up and frowns when he hears the shower in the ensuite. There are people who have a key to his house, but none of them are the type to show up and use his private bathroom with no warning. How weird would it be to go see who it is?

He's saved the trouble when the sound of running water stops. There’s a brief silence, and then the door opens and Jamie steps out, a fluffy towel around his waist. There’s another towel over his shoulders, and his hair is wet and falling in spiky strands over his forehead. It's like something out of a movie. 

“Uh...” Tyler doesn’t even try to stop himself from giving his captain a once over. He's seen Jamie freshly showered before, but not like, in the context of his bedroom. Most things look good on Jamie, but ‘damp and mostly naked’ is definitely up there. 

Jamie smiles. “Mornin’,” he says, leaning down to kiss Tyler’s forehead. 

Their friendship is pretty handsy, but this isn't something they do. Unless it is now? Tyler resists the urge to feel his forehead. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“Just got back from practice.”

Shit. SHIT. Tyler dives for the phone on his bedside table and stares at it in horror. It's past eleven.

“Why didn't you _call_ me?” he demands, unlocking it and scrolling frantically through the message and call history. There's absolutely no way he's getting scratched for any reason that isn't an illness or injury. Not again. 

Jamie pauses from where he had been vigorously drying his hair. “You needed the sleep?”

“I need to not miss practice!”

None of his alarms went off because there _aren’t_ any alarms set for practice. Instead, there's only one around that time, just labelled ‘Wake J’. Tyler glances up for an explanation, only to find Jamie watching him, looking mystified. 

“It's not family skate,” he says slowly. 

“Yeah, it's still preseason!” Tyler scrolls through his phone again. Not a single peep from the coaching staff or his agent, or anyone from the Stars, really. It's weird and kind of foreboding. “Why hasn't anyone called?”

Jamie puts the hair towel down and comes over, looking concerned. “Hey, c’mere.” 

He sits on the bed next to Tyler and draws him into a hug. Jamie smells fresh and clean, his skin cool against Tyler's, huge and solid in a way that Tyler leans into gratefully. He's managed five seasons in Dallas without fucking up too badly. He can’t start his new contract by missing a preseason practice. Especially not when he has an A.

Jamie rubs Tyler’s back soothingly until he calms down. That isn’t something they’ve done before either. “Thanks,” Tyler mumbles into Jamie’s shoulder. “Do you think I should call coach?”

“Why?” 

Tyler pulls back to find genuine confusion on Jamie’s face, and it makes something prickle uncomfortably at the back of his neck. “Why are you here?” 

Jamie frowns. “Because I live here. Are you okay, Ty?” 

Tyler would have absolutely remembered asking Jamie to move in with him. “Since when?” 

“Since our second anniversary. Seriously, Tyler, what the fuck is going on?”

Good question. Maybe he had missed Jamie so much that his subconscious upgraded to a dream where they’re actually dating. It makes more sense than anything else has so far. It’s also a little pathetic, especially when his mind latches onto ‘second anniversary’. Two years is a pretty long time. 

Jamie is starting to look alarmed, so Tyler reaches up to touch his face. Something glints on his left hand. Somehow, in his practice related panic, he had managed to completely miss the silver band on his left ring finger. It’s inlaid with an emerald.

They’re _married_. His wedding ring is in Stars colors. Jesus fuck, brain. 

“Weird dream,” Tyler says instead, and shuffles around to plant himself on Jamie’s towel clad lap. If this is going to be another Jamie dream, then he’s getting straight to the good part. “You kissed me and then pretended nothing happened.”

Gratifyingly, Jamie winds an arm around his waist and gives him a wounded look. “I would never.”

Tyler runs his fingers through Jamie’s hair, marveling at how soft it feels without the usual ton of gel. “Make me feel better,” he says, and doesn’t give Jamie a chance to respond before leaning down to kiss him.


	6. [Gen, Sid/Geno] Untitled Goose Fic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and Sid is a horrible goose.

There’s no sign of Sid when Zhenya arrives at his house to check in on him. He hadn’t been at the optional skate that morning, which isn’t abnormal, but he also hadn’t been responding to any of his messages, which was. Zhenya volunteered to check in on his way home, only to find a car in the driveway but no Sidney Crosby. The only thing he sees around the property other than a few squirrels is an average sized Canadian goose with an above average sized ass. 

Thinking nothing of it, Zhenya moves to go back into Sid's house, believing that he must have missed him somewhere. Maybe he’d gone out for a run, but that seems unlikely. He’s just sliding the glass door closed when he hears the goose yelling "HONK!" 

Zhenya turns around, frowns at the goose, then tries to close the door again. 

“HONK!” yells the goose once more, making Zhenya’s frown deepen. He doesn’t know much about Canadian geese, or geese in general, but this can’t be normal goose behaviour. On the third attempt, the goose actually rushes forward, honking at him the entire time. 

"Yes, yes, honk," Zhenya replies as he turns back around to see what the goose is doing. There has to be a reason that it’s making so much noise at him.

His mouth drops open in surprised horror when he sees that it is systematically uprooting all of Sid's flowers and tossing them around like destroying someone's garden is some sort of game. Despite his lack of knowledge about geese, he’s sure that this is not something that should be considered normal. 

This goose is very clearly a horrible goose. 

Even though he's starting to worry about Sid, he can't stand by and watch this goose ruin all of Sid's hard work, so he opens the door up again and rushes out into the yard to stop it. 

“Honk,” the goose says indignantly as Zhenya tries to chase it away. It doesn’t try to fly, which is surprising, but the way it waddles around the garden, destroying everything in its path is actually pretty cute. If this evil goose hadn’t been insisting on destroying his friend’s yard, Zhenya is sure that he’d have been incredibly charmed by it. 

Trying to scare the goose away turns out to be a monumental mistake, because as soon as he gets far enough into the yard, it rushes forward, right into the house.


End file.
